MKU (company)

History

The company started off with the manufacturing of locks. In 1985, M Kumar Udyog was founded for manufacturing and supply of defence specific requirements of the Indian Army, with its first lot of FRP helmets being shipped out in 1989.

By 1993 footwear manufacturing unit was commissioned. The company further diversified in 1997 and entered into plywood manufacturing business. Subsequently a separate manufacturing unit was set up for catering to the growing demand of plywood in India. In the same year a bitumen manufacturing plant was commissioned for supplies to the emerging road construction requirements of India.

During the Kargil war of 1999, fought between India and Pakistan, the Indian Ministry of Defence realized the acute need of ballistic protection due to the high casualties amongst Indian soldiers, leading to MKU entering the bulletproof protection market. It made its first commercial international sale in 2003.

Management

Manoj Gupta is the chairman of MKU, his brother, Neeraj Gupta, heads the international business team, while the third brother, Anurag Gupta, looks after the domestic operations. Neeraj Gupta is the managing director of MKU Limited. He started the armour business of the company.

Technology

MKU has its centers of research & development in India and Germany that develop ballistic protection technologies for the company. Additionally it has its own In house Ballistic testing laboratory in Germany which can conduct ballistic testing upto STANAG Level IV including various other prevalent testing standards, globally. It recently launched a new technology which it terms as the 6th generation ballistic protection technology by the name "GEN-6" offering a substantial reduction in the weight and thickness of personal body armour by 40% and 30% respectively.

This technological advancement has helped the company in the design and production of light weight personal protection armour that enables the users, largely soldiers and law enforcers, to carry with them more ammunition and ration and other mission critical equipment, and combat better with unrestricted movement, flexibility, and comfort. Body armour built with Ammoflex-6 and Polyshield-6 equips the forces with better multi-hit protection at lowest possible weights. Gen 6 armour solutions conform to the stringent NIJ 0101.06 and VPAM standards.

MKU's Mukut combat helmets are manufactured using its RHT (Reduced Helmet Trauma) technology which provides protection from bullets and fragments and reduces head and skull injuries. More importantly, it reduces the resultant trauma, arising due to BABT (Behind Armour Blunt Trauma), by over 40 per cent as compared to standard conventional composite helmets, according to the tests conducted by HP White Laboratory, USA. Trauma caused by bullets and fragments have been a concern for long among armed forces worldwide as the symptoms and aftermath of trauma related injuries surface long after they have occurred and stay for lifetime with the affected soldier.

The company has recently been entrusted by the Government of India to manufacture and supply 1.59 lakh ballistic helmets to the Indian army. The deal is estimated to be worth 170-180 crore. It's the first time in the last two decades that the Army has placed such a big order for helmets with an aim to enhance the fighting capability of its soldiers and provide them better protection on the battlefield.

The existing helmets have serious limitations as they provide safety against only splinters, rocks, and bullets that have ricocheted and grazed the helmets. The soldier will likely incur injury or lose his life if the bullet is hit directly on the helmet. A crucial factor about the new helmets is they are bullet proof and can bear impact of 9 mm ammunition fired from a short distance. About 6000 of these helmets will go to the Indian Navy, and many of these helmets will be designed for integration with modern communication and night vision devices. These helmets are part of the modern military equipment that is designed to protect and improve the lethality of the soldiers engaged in counter-insurgency or counter terrorist operations.

Business

Platform Armouring

Armouring platforms is becoming increasingly crucial for armed forces across the world. Platforms need to be armoured against all existing and continually evolving threats. Armed forces use their platforms to ferry their soldiers to and from the combat zones, and attack the supply chains of their enemy to force them to retreat or surrender.

Land vehicles like APCs (Armoured Personal Carriers) are used extensively to take and drop soldiers at the front lines. And these soldiers are most susceptible to attacks when they are inside these vehicles since they cannot counter attack due to constrained vehicle interiors and restricted positions. And therefore, it is important for any armed force to ensure that their soldiers stay safe while transiting so that they can effectively discharge their duties. With different kinds of land vehicle armour kits, these forces can strengthen the capabilities of their platforms against different sorts of threats from the enemy.

Traditionally, steel comes as the first choice for armouring platforms from any genre. But steel comes at a cheaper price demanding high resources from the platform which might not have been manufactured keeping the requirement of steel reinforcing for armouring the platform, thus rendering it as a legacy. So for ever evolving and diverse diaspora of threats consistent reinforcing the steel on such legacy platforms would largely compromise their performance increasing fuel consumption, lowering payload capacities and increasing maintenance costs, reducing platforms life, leaving aside other hordes of challenges that remain to be faced by the end user/owners. Only option that remains with them is to trade off these legacy platforms nearing obsolescence with new state of the art platforms. Now this demands serious monetary considerations which is not a luxury many armed forces enjoy. These forces plan it in a phased manner or some are constrained to make do whatever is available but still do not want to compromise on security and safety of men and material during transits. For them composite armour comes as a divine respite.

Recent developments in composite materials and technologies have addressed the problem effectively. Composite armour solutions stand to offer :

· Excellent power to weight ratio, performance

· Increased pay load capabilities

· Optimum fuel consumption, reduced carbon footprint

· Increased platform life

· Lower ownership cost

· Reduced cost of obsolescence management

· Noncorrosive

Composite Armour kits unlike steel counterpart are modular in nature and easily retrofit-able in combat zones depending on mission requirements and in-theater threat level. Composite armour is non-corrosive and can handle rugged terrain and harsh off road conditions with un-compromised performance.

MKU designs, manufactures and supplies ballistic kits to global forces for their tracked and off-road vehicles across ACVs (Armoured Combat Vehicles) & APCs (Armoured Personnel Carriers). These kits can be installed on platforms in real time in combat zones depending on the mission criticality and combat requirements, and often include standalone armours or add on armours, and spall liners. Spall liners protect the soldiers in APCs from spall effect arising due to penetration of hull by high speed projectiles like anti-material rifles. Such spall effect delivers multiple impacts on the occupants by injuries from fragments arising due to breach of vehicle hull from anti-material rounds.

Helicopters play an important role in enabling the military and law enforcement agencies to conduct special operations behind the enemy line or to carry out humanitarian and relief options. But the threat landscape In these helicopters operate in makes them an easy target for the enemy force or militants. For airborne platforms the threats are not from small arms but from MMG’s, LMG’s and anti-aircraft guns, to name a few. Smart gunners don’t aim to hit a rotary wing aircraft just about anywhere; instead they would aim for the tail rotor drive shaft or the engine itself, rendering the aircraft un-maneuverable and leading to a crash landing thereby seriously injuring the occupants or more so causing inevitable fatalities. Hence aircraft are armoured not only to protect the fuselage but also the tail boom housing tail rotor drive shaft and engines too. On the other hand combat ready fixed wing aircraft move at such high speeds that they are not an easy target moreover the weight of armouring would severely impede their functionality thus purpose.

To enable air forces strike effectively and keep their crew staff safe and sound, MKU has created ready solutions for more than 20 types of helicopters including De Havilland DHC-6 Twin Otter, Pilatus PC-6 Turbo Porter, Bell UH-1/212 Huey-Types, Boeing CH-47, Eurocopter B0-105, Eurocopter Puma/Super Puma/Cougar, Sikorsky CH-53, MIL MI-8/17, NH Industries NH-90. The company uses its German engineered patented system MODULARE SHUTZ TECHNIK and Polyshield V6 technology to build up to 40 per cent lighter and thinner armour panels for different aircraft that protect the platform from small handguns, assault rifles, armour piercing ammunitions, fragments, and heavy machine guns. A reduced weight of the panels also translates into more useful payload and increases the endurance of the aircraft which means the pilot can have more crew and more ammunition or rations inside the aircraft.